Question
How can educators effectively support students in completing a multi-step academic project while addressing their emotional and regulatory needs?
Answer
To support students, educators can implement strategies that accommodate their unique emotional, behavioral, and cognitive profiles while promoting engagement and task completion. For Fia, who presents with low energy, social withdrawal, and poor work completion, simplifying the initial decision-making process—such as narrowing the choice of animals for the project—can reduce cognitive and emotional overload. Similarly, Thomas, who exhibits fluctuating energy levels and difficulty sustaining attention, benefits from structured decision-making support and daily scaffolding to help manage the assignment's complexity.
Breaking the rubric into manageable, daily tasks using tools like a planner can improve their sense of control and success. Incorporating movement or sensory-based interventions, such as acting out animal behaviors or integrating physical therapy into academic activities, can increase engagement and memory retention. Regular check-ins, both at school and home, can offer accountability and emotional consistency. Peer collaboration may also provide social motivation and model successful academic behavior, which is particularly impactful at this developmental stage.
Teachers and therapists can further enhance support by observing mood and energy levels to guide task timing, using language that validates emotional states, and focusing on intrinsic motivation rather than external rewards. Embedding tools for self-regulation, such as breathing exercises or brief physical activities, enables students to manage their states and access learning more effectively. Ultimately, blending academic instruction with individualized supports and therapeutic collaboration can empower students to complete complex tasks with greater independence and confidence.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Let’s Not Overlook Mood Disorders In Our Youth Population, presented by Tere Bowen-Irish, OTR/L.
